Trade News

Russian self-driving tech company Yandex has placed its operations in the U.S. on hiatus.

The company said Friday it has paused testing of its robotaxi fleet in Ann Arbor, Mich., and is no longer making restaurant deliveries with its six-wheeled sidewalk Rover bots on college campuses across the country.

"Our AV test fleet in Ann Arbor is grounded at the moment, but we hope to resume operations in the future," a spokesperson told Automotive News.

Yandex stopped its operations as Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its second week, a conflict which has sparked international outcry and compelled businesses across the globe to cut ties with Russian companies.

One of those was food delivery service Grubhub, which said Thursday it would end its partnership with Yandex. The two companies had worked together on the Ohio State University and University of Arizona campuses.

"We're working with our campus partners on alternate service options as we…

BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group has chosen its headquarters, the central German city of Wolfsburg, as the location for its new factory to buld the Trinity electric flagship sedan for the VW brand.

Construction is set to begin in spring 2023, VW said on Friday.

VW said it was investing about 2 billion euros ($2.18 billion) in the production of the vehicle.

The plant will use the latest manufacturing techniques and is designed to close the technology gap to Tesla, which on Friday got approval to start production at its new European plant near Berlin.

Construction will start in 2023, with cars rolling off the production line starting in 2026, VW said. 

The Trinity sedan will be about the size of the midsize Passat. The car is aimed at the mass market and targets a range of more than 700 km (435 miles).

It will be technically ready for Level 4 autonomous driving and will debut VW Group’s SSP electric "super platform" that will replace …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is asking its dealers to implement some of the most significant changes to their business in decades as it works to modernize its retail strategy and beat back threats from Tesla and electric vehicle startups that have championed direct-to-consumer sales.

Ford this week revealed plans to split its business into separate divisions: Ford Blue for internal combustion vehicles and Ford Model e for EVs. While long-standing franchise agreements ensure the structure of its retail network must stay intact, Ford wants to craft a new set of operating standards for EV sales that would combine the most popular aspects of direct-sale startups with the expertise its dealers have developed over more than a century.

The automaker plans to create the blueprint in tandem with dealers and won't finalize details until after they provide input over the next few months. But executives have outlined some of what they want to include: a commitment to carrying…

A 16-year-old male was arrested on Thursday and charged with murder and burglary in connection with the death of a security guard at a Stonecrest, Ga. dealership.

The 24-year-old security guard, Henry Ashley, was shot on Feb 19 after investigating an alert of a suspicious person on the Courtesy Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership's property late at night, the Dekalb County Police Department said. Ashley then encountered five people who had broken onto the property and was shot while in his work vehicle.

He was transported to the local hospital where he later died, the Dekalb County Police said. According to local reporting, Ashley was married and had a 4-year-old child.

The police released security footage of the five people and were able to identify and arrest the 16-year-old with tips from civilians.

"I want to thank the community for its assistance during this investigation," Chief of Police of the DeKalb County Police…

DETROIT – The Detroit 3 automakers and UAW late Thursday announced that factory workers in areas not deemed high risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer have to wear masks on the job regardless of vaccination status.

The union and automaker's joint task force said that each company will communicate when the changes go into effect. Masks will continue to be made available at plants for workers who want to continue to wear them, the task force said.

The CDC last week significantly eased mask mandates, saying Americans in a majority of the country could take off face coverings in most situations as coronavirus cases continue to fall in much of the nation.

The new protocols will go into effect at Ford facilities starting with daytime shifts on Friday, according to Chuck Browning, UAW vice president in charge of the Ford department.

Auto workers have had to wear masks at work for all but a few weeks since the COVID-19 pand…

Supplier giant Magna International Inc. said it was halting its operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine, a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.

"Like most in the international community, we remain deeply concerned with the very unfortunate situation in Ukraine," Magna spokeswoman Tracy Fuerst said in a statement. "Given current conditions, Magna is idling its Russian operations."

Magna has a significant presence in Russia, with six plants and about 2,500 employees in the country. Only Germany (32 plants), Austria (17) and the Czech Republic (11) have more Magna plants within their borders in Europe, according to the company's website.

Magna follows many other automotive companies in suspending business operations in Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine. Automakers including Ford, Honda, Toyota, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Volvo, General Motors and Daimler Truck have all suspended shipments to Russia, halted vehicle assembly in the cou…

Japan's Panasonic Corp. is looking to purchase land in the United States for a massive factory to make a new type of electric vehicle battery for Tesla, public broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.

Panasonic is looking at building the several billion dollar factory in either Oklahoma or Kansas for their proximity to Texas, where Tesla is preparing a new EV plant, NHK reported. NHK gave no timeline for Panasonic's U.S. project.

NHK did not cite the source of its information. Panasonic said the reported plan was not something it announced.

A long-time Tesla supplier, Panasonic has already announced plans to begin mass-producing the new type of lithium-ion battery for Tesla before the end of March, 2024 with two new production lines at its western Japanese plant in Wakayama.

The 4680 format (46 millimeters wide and 80 millimeters tall) battery is about five times bigger than those currently supplied to Tesla, meaning the automaker will be able to lower…

AutoNation Inc. has named two company veterans as chief operating officers to oversee both the franchised dealership and non-franchised dealership sides of the auto retail giant's business. The moves come as its current president and COO is set to retire on Friday.

AutoNation said Thursday that Dave Koehler, its eastern region president since May 2019, will become COO of the company's non-franchised dealership business and will manage its standalone used-vehicle AutoNation USA stores, AutoNation auctions and its collision business.

Steve Kwak, western region president since May 2017 and AutoNation USA president since August 2020, will be COO of AutoNation's franchised dealership business, responsible for operations at its new-vehicle dealerships, manufacturer relations, finance and insurance and its aftersales businesses.

Both Koehler and Kwak will report to AutoNation CEO Mike Manley.

"Steve and Dave have nearly sixty years of combined automotive…

Ford Motor Co. unveiled a two-pronged future this week, with its gasoline-powered and electric businesses divided into two new business units.

Do two-wheeled vehicles fit into that vision? Not so much. Amid the new structural developments announced this week, Ford quietly sold its electric bike and scooter division, Spin, to European micromobility operator Tier Mobility AG.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Ford had acquired Spin for $100 million in November 2018, a time when the automaker wanted to explore new branches of mobility and scooter startups proliferated.

Along with the shuttering of ride-sharing service Chariot in 2019, the Spin sale and its EV-minded overhaul all affirm Ford's vision of mobility remains one centered on personally owned automobiles.

Spin's operations across the U.S. give Tier its first foothold in North America. The company says it operates in approximately 410 cities with a fleet of 250,000 vehicles.…

As dealerships across the country grapple with decimated inventory levels as part of the lingering microchip shortage, an ever-present challenge in showrooms and service bays is worsening: finding and hiring candidates for open positions and retaining those already employed.

It's a stark change from the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, when dealerships laid off employees en masse as stay-at-home mandates were issued by governors and local leaders to curb the spread of illness. And it has cemented a shift in power from employer to employee, dealership hiring experts say.

"The biggest problem dealers have is they can't find people," said Ted Kraybill, president of ESI Trends, a Clearwater, Fla., consulting firm that conducts the annual National Automobile Dealers Association Dealership Workforce Study. "That's been an increasing problem for a number of years even before COVID. And then you have the problem that the culture in car dealershi…